The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-11-13
THE HUNT FOR THE POLE
Gen. Greeley Does Not Think the North
Pole Will Be Reached,
Except Aerial Navigation Is Made Successful
The Grounds for His 0pinion-Interest
in the Question Not Dying Out.


asked to express his opinion to whether the
north pole will ever be reached. It is not to be
supposed that mere ipse dixit will be accepted
on so vexed and uncertain question. Let US OK
anime little the various efforts which have
been made to reach this geographical point. One
of the expeditions best planned in it's general ar
rangements, although it failed in details partic-
ularly that of food, was commanded by Sir Ed
ward Parry, in the famous attempt to reach the
north pole by boats and sledges, to the north
ward of Spitzbergen, in the year 1927. Unfor-
tunately for Parry. he found instead of a solid,
fixed pack. over which his party could travel
with a fair degree of rapidity, broken, scat
tered and drifting mass of ice which was no t
sufficient in extent to justify sledge travel,
nor, on the other hand, was the
sea sufficiently free from ice to per-
NIT Of extensive movements by boat In
consequence the energies of the party were sub
stantially wasted in repeated and almost con-
tinuous efforts Of launching and drawing up
their boats. Added to these troubles came later
the knowledge that the southerly drift carried
them by night nearly as far to the southwark as
their utmost endeavors enabled them to travel
northward by day. Notwithstanding such ad-
verse conditions Parry succeeded in reaching
latitude S0o As, within four hundred and thirty
five miles Of the geographical pole. Had Parry
been the master of vessel such as a steam
whaler of to-day. it is beyond question that by
vessel he could have forced his way in the Green
lard sea, far TO the northward of the eighty
third parallel. But such was not to be his fate
and later the world has accepted as an axiom
the sound Arctic canon advanced by Parry him
self that great success can be made by a yes
sci unless it forces it's way in open water along
a K
posure.
Later the British expedition Of 1875 and 1876,
favored by the coast OF Greenland, passed up the
west Greenland channel, and displayed the
British flag upon the polar pack, in latitude
$50 20/ within 800 miles of the geographical pole
The heavy equipment of the English party. and
the fact that the exhausting work Of dragging
the sledges fell entirely on the men instead of
being done, at least in part, by Eskimo dogs
together with errors OF diet, which have never
been entirely and satisfactorily settled upon.
caused the breakdown of Markhams party, and
the consequent failure to do more than display
the British flag few miles nearer the pole than
had ever been done before.
In the expedition of Weyprecht, Payer, leav-
ing the Tegethoff on the south shore of the new
land, known as Franz Joseph Land, succeeded in
reaching, by sledge. Cape Fligely, just above
the eighty second parallel. whence land with
water hoes along tho western shore. was visible
northward to the eiehty-third parallel.
Lastly, in the expedition under my command,
Lieutenant Lockwood. with Branard and
Christensen, attained on the northwest coast of
Greenland the highest latitude ever reached by
man either land From Lock wood
island they looked northward along a coast
which yet continued to trend to the northeast,
and saw the sharp outlines of Cape Washington,
which is situated within 800 miles OF the geo.
graphical pole
It follows then, that land at or beyond the
eighty third parallel has been trod
within 400 miles of the geographical pole at two
nearly opposite points of the Arctic circle. and
the question recurs whether it is yet possible
for the intervening space to be passed over by
man, provided the expedition is ably COM
manded the parties we'll equipped and q sufi-
cient number of supporting sledges furnished.
III the difficulties Of food and travel were the
only objections. my answer would be yes for, al
though my own party did not succeed in reach
ing the goal, their failure must be attributed
to great extent to the fact that the Lady
Franklin Bay expedition planned and or
ganized in the interest of scientific observations,
and not for the purpose of geographical explora-
tions. which latter must be quite barren of val
liable results. Had the expedition been proper
ly fitted out for exploration alone-had money
and time been available for its commander TO
select his sledees, purchase his dogs and make
arrangements for all travelling devices known to
Arctic sledgemen in the interest Of his exploring
work, the writer doubts not that Lieutenant
Lockwood and his hardy companions, instead Of
stopping at $50 "a. would have passed to the
northward until the eighty-fifth parallel had
been crossed or the coast of Greenland rounded.
Beyond the eightyfifth parallel it would still be
question of tried. determined men and a
favorable season. such as favored Lock
wood in 1882, for a storm in 1883 turned
his party backward when starting under more
favorable circumstances than in the pre-
vious year But even despite the open
at Black Horn Cliffs the eighty fifth parallel
would have undoubtedly been reached by the
American expedition of 1881 had its work been
strictly geographical, for in such case the COM
mander and dozen men would have landed by
preference, not on Grinnell Land, but on the
Greenland coast, Thank God harbor,
whence it would have been possible during the
fall of 1881 and the early spring Of 1882 to plant
appropriate supplies at either Cape Bryant or
Cape May. or still further northward Cape
Britannia Land. Such autumn depots would
have insured a party reaching the eighty-sixth
or eighty-seventh parallel of latitude without
any insuperable difficulty, even bad land failed
ditions such possibly occurred in that year
l1S82) the party could have attained the pole
Itself, provided that the spot where latitude at
tsins its maximum and longitude ceases to
exist is situated the frozen sea or is
a bit of iceless land. These conditions, howev-
err are by no means certain. and, in the opinion
of the writer, until aerial navigation Is success
full, it will never be the fortune of man to place
foot upon the north geographical pole. This
opinion is not based upon nero surmise. but
rather scientific grounds resting deduc-
tons drawn from the prevalence of foeberes
near the pole and the character Of the ice In the
sea to the northward of Grinnsll Land.
1t is a matter of little doubt that tie south
polar regions contain a land of vast extent
from which slowly increasing layers of falling
snow gradually send forth from its central plat
eaus the enormous fat-top icebergs of the south.
The manner in which southern ice forms has
been clearly set forth by the late DR.. Carpenter,
in an article entitled ''The Deep Sea and its
Contents, which was published in a magazine
some years since-in the Nineteenth Century
believe
The result of observations in the Arctic Sea
led me to believe that the so-called paieoc rystic
ice OF Mares was nothing but the hat-t opped
icebergs of the south. an opinion which wa
frmed almost to a certainty when in Kane's
sea, while making the famous boat journey to
Sabine, found on an enormous fat-topped fl oe-
berg of the famous paleocrystic ice a couple of
medal moraiues for med Of large rocks dragged
down by the uniting glacier from tho adjacent
cliffs in such manner as any traveller can now
see in the Alps This proved conclusively that
this ice of enormous extent and OF thousand
feet so in thickness, which the southerly run
ming current of Kane sea shows must come from
the north, is simply detachment from the ice
cap of a considerable land. which must be in the
vicinity of the north pole since ice of this
character fills the frozen to the northward
of Grnnell Land. The land from which ice of